News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-09-29
A CHAPTER ON RATTLERS,
WHAT OLD SIMON KENT KNOWS
ABOUT THEM.
Ready TO Feast on Anything but
Rats, Bantams, and Hogs, and
Not IN he TpuStp6 at All

snake king" of Clinton County, Penn.
to a New York Times correspondent, :.
think | know few things about rattle
snakes. ought to. I've lived mex
door neighbor to them for forty years
They're friends of mine, but | wouldn'
trust one of them a single second if hC
was in reach of me- y
Kent and a sixteen-year old son live
alone in the woods The father is a man
of intelligence, but spends most of his
time in capturing rattlesnakes, which arc
abundant in his locality. He has some
times as many as 200 of these venomous
reptiles in captivity at one time. He sup
plies side shows and museums with live
rattlers, and he has quite trade in
tanned rattlesnake skins, which are used
extensively by manufacturers of fancy ar
ticles. He also sells large quantities of
rattlesnake oil, faith in its efficacy as Il
liniment being general throughout this
part of Pennsylvania.
'pve got Il rattlesnake at home" con-
tinued the rattlesnake king, "that |
have had eleven years. / raised him
from the time that he was three inches
long, and think the world of him, but
he's got his fangs in, and know that he
would Just as leave sock them into me
as into anybody else. ! call him Nco-
demus. | have learned a good deal
about rattlesnakes during my long ex-
perience with them, but | have discov-
cred more things about them through
Nicodemus than in any other way.
Among other things l have found that
the rattlesnake changes its skin twice IL
year-in July and September-and that if
they can't get to water while they're she'd
ing their skin it will come off slowly and
In pieces, instead of peeling off in one
whole piece from head to tail. But I've
never caught on to just how they get the
skin off. I've gone to bed at night and
left Nicodemus without his showing any
more sign of peeling himself than if he'd
| been stick of wood, but in the morning
his old clothes would be lying in one
corner of the cage, and he would be as
bright as an old-fashioned patchwork
quilt in his new ones.
1T is the general impression that when
a rattlesnake is shedding his skin he GETS
blind. There is no mistake that his
eyes do get covered with blush film at
that time, but just put a mouse in his
cage and see how qnick he'll coil up and
send for it and hit it in the neck every
the neck, and he always strikes his prey
before he eats it; but you may fill his
cage with rats, or mice, or frogs, or any
thing else he likes, and he'll never touch
one of them unless he's hungry. He
kills only enough for one meal, and when
that is swallowed anything and every
thing that's left can crawl over him,
Jump on him and tumble him around as
,N1a
boo The rattlesnake is not a wanton
destroyer, nor is he glutton. Two mice
will make him an ample meal. Ihad my
pet rattlesnake ten months before he ate
mouthful or drank drop of anything.
rattlesnake has been known to remain
fourteen months in captivity without eat
ing and drinking, and then all of a sud
den begin to find his appetite.
''There is no telling how long an ami
NAL Will live after being struck by rat
tlesnake, and it may not die at all.
have known rat to die within six min
utes after Nicodemus set his fangs in its
neck, and have known one, again, to live
more than day after being struck.
turned a little bantam hen into Nico-
demus's cage one day, and when he
struck her it made her so mad that she
turned and pitched into him so fiercely
that she drove him into a corner bleed
ing like stuck pig. was afraid this
excited little fowl would kill him, and |
took her out as soon as | could. She
kceled over an hour afterward, and I
supposed, of course, that she was done
for, with all that rattlesnake poison in
her, but she lived three days in stupor
and then gradually got we'll That was
the only instance 4 ever knew of any
thing recovering from the bite of rat
tlcsnake without being treated for the
poisoning
Except hogs, pop" interjected the
rattlesnake kings son once more
''Oh, yes, except hogs" replied the
father Clogs don't mind rattlesnakes
any more than mind flies had an old
sow once-do you mind old Jennie,
Bob?-that was a terror after rattle
snakes. She could find the trail of one
as surely as the hound can find the deer's
track, and she'd follow that trail till she.
came up with the snake that made it,
and then the rattler was her meat She
didn't seem to care for any other kind of
snakes, but she'd hunt rattlers from the
beginning of the season till the end. If
l could have taught that pig to retrieve
she'd have been worth good deal to me,
for the number of snakes she'd have
brought in during the season would have
been immense; but she wasn't on the re-
trieve. She was hunting for her own
accommodation, and ate every snake she
caught, leaving only the head. | used
to find so many rattlesnake heads on my
tours through the woods that it began
to dawn on me that my old sow was
working dead against me by destroying
the snake crop, and l was finally forced
to kill her for my own protection.
II have tried the effect of Nicodemus's
bite on many different animals and birds,
and with the exception of the bantam
and cur dog that | experimental on,
every one of them died, some very soon
after being bitten, and some not until
three or four days had passed. l am
sorry to say that Nicodcmus has a record
of one man, too, on his list of victims.
As general thing, do not believe that
the bite of a rattlesnake will result fatally
to human beings, but it did in this case.
The mans name was Flint, and it was all
his own fault that he was bitten. He
was one of those courageous, smart
fellows, who think they can do anything.
He was at my place one day and got to
teasing the snake. Finally he poked his
finger through one of the meshes of the
wire at Nicodemus. When a rattlesnake
strikes it never misses its mark if what
it strikes at is within reach There is no
movement in the world any quicker than
a rattlesnake's strike. The snake struck
at Flint's finger and, of course, hit it.
In two hours the man was dead. hadn't
a drop of whisky in the house, and before
it was possible to send and get some Flint
was dead.
"a human being seems to be the only
creature that suffers pain from a rattle
snakes bite. Ever yother living thing
that l ever saw bitten by a rattlesnake
seemed to act as if lit had been chloro-
formed. You can hardly see where a
snakes fangs enter the flesh, and not
drop of blood flows from the wound. In
fammation sets in at once; the breath
begins to come hard and short. In ami
mails paralysis soon occurs in the hind
parts The blood leaves the eXtremities
and becomes thin. The heart of any
animal that dies from rattlesnake poison
will always be found filled with blood in
a thin fluid state instead of being coagu-
lated.
II am firm believer in whisky as an
antidote for rattleSnake poisoning. l
have known seven different cases of per-
sons being bitten by rattlers where
whisky was adm nistered promptly and
and not one was fatal. Besides